Office Issues That Everybody Has to Face

The professional landscape can be a treacherous place, full of pitfalls, obstacles and struggles only office workers will understand. Although few things are universal, there are some office issues that almost anyone that works in the corporate world will come up against, no matter what the position, experience or specific job. These are a few office issues that everybody at some point will have to face.

Interpersonal

Sure humans are social beings, from early on in our history we figured out that it’s nice to share with other cave-people when you’re cooking up your wooly mammoth steak and drinking some stone-age brew. Probably as fast as we figured out that it’s nice to have other people around, we found out how much some of those people annoy us, and this is such a timeless realization that thousands of years later, although we still like being around people, they still annoy us.

No matter how likable, easy going or personable you are, eventually you will find a person that dislikes you or that you dislike. It’s the way of the world. If they don’t influence your work or make you look bad the best tactic is just ignore them. I know you want to be liked, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses kid.

Environmental Issues

No, I’m not talking about the natural environment, but the office environment. From the office’s temperature, which is a frequent gripe since the open plan office has become the latest corporate trend, to break-room habits and bathroom hygiene (or the unfortunate lack thereof), at some point during everyone’s career they are bound to encounter one (and most probably all) of these issues. It’s inevitable if you take a group of people and shove them into a space for the majority of the day, tensions are going to arise, personalities are going to clash and gripes are going to be…ehm griped, I guess.

The only way to avoid this is to: wear multiple layers so you can remove or add clothing if Lucy Lava gets into a temperature disagreement with Freezing Fred with the office thermostat as their battleground. Have multiple levels of antibacterial combating solutions for the break room and restroom, and finally, take deep breaths and walk away if you are offended by the conversation being held around the water-cooler, involving the multiple uses of Bic pens.

Management Issues

The dynamic of the workplace goes: employee gets hired, employee does what he/she is told and employee gets compensated for said doing of the telling. Sometimes though the dynamic adds another set of circumstances: dealing with a difficult boss. I know you are wondering “How is this different from the whole interpersonal conflicts you mentioned above” and I will tell you, you need to be more patient or read ahead.

The primary difference between having personality conflicts with co-workers and having ones with the boss are: you can ignore the boss…I mean you could, but you’d probably get fired, which in a weird way would actually fix the problem, no job-no boss. That measure might be too extreme of course, after all, you need money to eat and what not, so instead try your best to find a mid-ground or meditate….yeah that’s probably the best idea.